Fake Capitalism

The free trade merchants have existed for all the centuries in the history of mankind. But the capitalism that Adam Smith has defined in his famous book (the wealth of nations, 1776) with some features and specific characteristics is already dead.The Adam Smith capitalism system was defined to promote better production, full competition, and create equal opportunities. Todays, none of these features are alive. The equal opportunities and healthy competitions are declining. The gap between poor and rich is widening. The social, economic, educational, and political inequalities are growing. The business ethics are diminishing and CEOs only mission is to   maximize the investors' wealth regardless of the well-being of consumers and workers.As Marx argued in the first volume of his book named “Das Kapital” Published in 1867, The capitalism will not be a stable economic system because it is based on private profit with no boundaries. Capitalists will become increasingly powerful and control all the means of production while working people will become increasingly poor and fall into poverty.Although Marx did not say when this will happen, but some analysts believe that the true capitalism died in 1929 when the great depression happened. Since then the western economic system has changed and the law of supply & demand cannot work effectively and freely anymore. The mischiefs of human nature which is created by their greed does not let the societies to live with equal opportunities. Today a fake capitalism is in place and control the world economy.These days, the big corporations have monopolized the world economy. Big companies have ruined the healthy competition, restricting the freedom. Facebook, Google, Amazon are the tech gate keepers. Big Banks, pharmaceutical companies, airlines have made the distribution of power unequal. It is said that 40% of the US airports belong to one airline. This list can go on and on.What we call capitalism does not offer any kind of equality today. From economy to social and political opportunities, all are in favor of the wealthy people and the working and middle class all around the developed societies are feeling injustice. This situation can not last forever.
On the other side, many analysts believe that another crisis is on its way due to many reasons such as unsolved causes of 2007 crisis, US deregulations and protectionism policies, and increasing global debts to 1.7 times more than 2007. All developed countries have been taking expansionary monetary policies since January 2019 and starting to cut their interest rates to avoid another crisis.So, let’s pray that the coming financial crisis do not ignite a big social unrest in the western world, which if it happens, the costs and consequences would be so huge and undefinable to the extent that the world will witness a new world order.Mahmoud Gonabadi, June 12, 2019